14 os Wednesday wee 7

~- — *

about $400 per person. ©

“In troduction

- Aléan: ‘recenily invited representatives of. call |
. : - northwest B.C. ‘media outlets to take a first-hand _
“look at progress to date on its Kemano Completion. -
1° Project. On the evening of July 12 after dinner in
- Kitimat a group of eight assorted broadcasters,
technicians, reporters and editors were flown into |
: “Kemano by helicopter. During ‘the following 24
‘|: ‘hours we met with Kemano residents in their com-.
munity lounge, slept in construction camp bunk-
houses, ate breakfast and lunch in the construction
‘camp dining room, toured the corstruction area by -
“bus, toured the Kemano powerhouse, and overflew:
the west.end of the reservoir that provides water to —
power the Kemano- generators.” We were given the
unrestricted: opportunity to.meet \ with and.interview ©.
“construction workers. and’ residents of the Kemano *
‘townsite. The material in this section was compiled *|
_ from references provided by Alcan and direct ex- a:
perience during. the tour. The event was entirely
“sponsored by Alcan, who placed the value of it at i

Stories and photographs by Michael Kelly

of n 188 ‘the: work of a , young

experimne ting in’ his woodshed

in Oberlin, Ohio —-sealed the

fate of.a remote: ‘mountainous
corner of British: ‘Columbia that

of.

That: year. Hall discovered an.

electrochemical process for. ex-

tracting : pure. aluminum: from:

aluminum oxide, “a process ‘that

would make the mass produc-
tion of the light and versatile -
‘that included unprecedented

metal inexpensive. Although the
process was discovered almost
simultaneously by a French
scientist, Paul-Louis Toussaint

-founders of

Heroult, Hall isthe significant’

: figure: for this. region because he

became. ‘one. of . the original
the . Aluminum ~-
Company of. ‘Canada, now

known as Alcan.

. Hall had probably, never heard
- the Hall process is avast. quanti-

- The critical requirement for.

ty of cheap electricity. In 1948.

. Alcan began investigating the
Ahydroelectric

generating.
possibilities -of the Nechako
River system. After striking. a+
deal with the B.C. government ©:

water rights, the company went
to work on the most ‘ambitious
engineering and construction

pin Taylor, a , member of: th
_. Kemano- powerhouse, stand
- 420-megawatt generators that provide power for Alcan's

e ‘management ‘team at. the |.
s next. to one of. the. eight

‘Kitimat.works. The Kemano Completion Project will install.

four : additional .. 126-megawatt ‘Generators | In a second

posdihouse compl Ox.

-gion lines and ‘towers demonstrate

struction.

| Tha lines that carry hydroelectric. power from Alcan’s Ke
- smelter march.through the high ‘and rugged Kildala ‘pass. Built In the 1950's, the transmis: -
d-for the first-time the usefulness of helicopters Incon- |

mano- powerhouse to its- Kitimat we

project in. Canadian history

undertaken by a private com-.

pany.

Nechako River ‘just _above
Cheslatta Falls, turning the up-

: per. Nechako valley:into a vast -

ring of Jakes. At the west end of

the. project .a tunnel 16

kilometers long and eight meters

‘in: diameter -. was - bored - and:
blasted through the rocky heart.
.of Mount Dubose, terminating :

ina vertical tunnel (‘‘penstock’’)

that drops hundreds of meters to :

a powerhouse - complex carved
into the base of the mountain. ~

While the power project went
ahead, the company was also

electricity in Kitimat, a small
village at the time. Transmission

Alcan has turned Mount
Dubose, -the peak that towers
over: the. Kemano River valley,
into a sort of passive, controlled
volcano that invisibly spews out
electricity instead of smoke, lava
and ash,

Cubic miles of water, trapped
across a mountain. range and
high above the valley, press
down through a tunnel bored
through the mountain and
emerge within the cavernous
powerhouse. carved into the rock
at the mounitain’s base: The flow
from the main water intake at
the third level of the powerhouse
is divided into eight sections,
one for each of the main power
generators.
emerges as four, two-inch jets at
a pressure of 1,150 pounds per
square inch that drive the
horizontal turbines. Each..tur-
bine weighs 13 tons, made in a
single steel. casting by a. Swiss
company.

The rotating. movement of the

. 327. tevolitions. per: minute, is

transmitted. through massive

steel shafts to the generators-on
the main floor. The rotation of
. coppet- -wound ° armatures
through a. thagnetic field
‘generates the electricity at

building a smelter to use the ©

— Electricity from

Each branch ~

turbines, “rigidly. controlled at

lines to” “carry the current from -
‘Kemano power" complex to: the --
- ‘smelter were strung over. the for--

A 100-by-500. ‘meter’ vearth- -
filled dam was. thrown across the.

bidding Kildala pass, “another : .
pioneering: feat that. first
demonstrated the usefulness of -
‘helicopters in construction. ow

as

the same as the atigibal project: 7

another 16-kilometer. tuiinel (5.7

.” meters in diameter) will be bored
through the mountain parallel to.

and 500 meters.south of the ex-

‘isting: tunnel. Another. penstock .
will carry the water into another

- powerhouse adjacent to the ex-

In the late 1970"s Alcan began -

looking forward to creating ad-
ditional smelting capacity at the

Kitimat works and turned its at-
_ tention toward. expanding the.
* power generation at Kemano: -
After’a lengthy and intermittent:

process that involved over :10
years of public consultation,

-redesigning and negotiation with

government, the Kemano Com-
pletion Project started in
January of this year.. mo

The enginecring and. construc-
tion process is fundamentally.

13,000 volts. The electricity is. °
conducted to transformers,
which step it up to 300,000 volts
and fire it down the transmission -
lines to the Kitimat smelter.

The spent water drains into
the bottom level of the

Alcan : public attairs officer Allan Hewitson Is shown next tto

isting one in. another man-made
cavern. Another set-of transmis-

- sion lines: will be strung about 50
kilometers- next ‘to the existing

lines. .

’ The. power, however, won't be
_: ysed to smelt more aluminum —.
it’s being sold to:B.C. Hydro. .
Alcan public affairs represen-

tative Allan Hewitson says the

deal has ‘been signed, but the -

terms aren’t being disclosed.

~ -.Kemano Completion will cost.
Alcan: ; $800 million. at last

estimate. _

water

: powerhouse, is pumped around: .

. the’ ‘transformers as a coolant,
comes out of the mountain.
“through a tailrace and mingles
with the glacial waters of the

Kemano River. -

one of the intake pipes in the basement of the Kemano
powerhouse where gravity-fed water arrives in the patie

~ after travelling 16 kilometers

through a mountain tunnel. .

glia IR

Through. the heart of a. , mountain - eh

/~

a wen wR ae Bee oe TT OMA